The ocean currents are changing, with major implications for climate around the world. Yet our new article published in Nature Sustainability suggests most governments are not preparing for this possibility. Of 91 national adaptation plans submitted to the U.N. climate convention, only two even mention that key Atlantic current, and neither sets out concrete action in response to its possible collapse.

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[–] 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Serious question from an ignorant person, how tf do we affect ocean currents? Doesn't that have more to do with gravity and the rotation of the earth?

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 1 week ago

    It is a dynamic system with many variables, yes those set up the broad conditions but the geography and role of wind as well as crucially less saline water in the north atlantic creates a very nuanced and sensitive conveyor belt, far more than you might think when people describe it as a current.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago

    Warm salty water flows north in the Gulf Stream, and then sinks when it cools in the North Atlantic (because saltier water is denser). Once it sinks, it flows back south along the bottom of the ocean.

    Cold fresh water entering the North Atlantic due to ice melt from Greenland disrupts that process. The faster Greenland's ice cap melts, the slower the current gets.

    If it stops entirely, heat stops getting transported by the Gulf Stream and northwestern Europe (especially Britain) starts looking more like Alaska.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

    It's the ice melting. When the Atlantic current gets to the Arctic it's extremely salty and sinks to the bottom. That's one of the primary engines for that current.

    When the ice melts it dilutes the salt and so it no longer has the salinity to sink. That would make it stop!

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago

    Day after tomorrow? Guess i better start stockpiling supplies...

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  • [–] 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

    But coriolis effect is the main force that drives them?

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 6 days ago (1 child)

    No, heat is, the coriolis effect is how an object moving through different rotational contexts inevitably leads to rotational motion.

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  • Phew. That's thousands of miles away. 😅😶

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  • 10 comments in c/science@beehaw.org view that post
    [–] 6 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Weird. I wonder who could be responsible for that missing information? I guess it’ll remain a mystery.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (6 children)
  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (5 children)

    The fact this doesn't get near enough wide-reach media attention, is a testament to how much those in power would rather hide from impending disaster, than deal with it.

    Or, they want it to happen, because they are part of the religious death cult that welcomes the end of the human race.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    No one wants to sacrifice their lifestyles, and no one wants to be holding the bag, so they'll pretend it's not happening, and when it comes to their door they'll use their resources to be the last ones it affects.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    use their resources to be the last ones it affects.

    I love how they think the service teams and maintenance staff in their bunkers are going to just be fine being ordered round by a fucking lizard skin suit. The only useless people in a bunker will be those lizards.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago*

    I think you're thinking too extreme on this; we're not talking Mad Max desert planet survival, we're talking "can afford to buy oranges when they're $30 a dozen", "can afford gas at $20 per gallon". Or even $100. Taylor Swift spends more on aviation gas in a year than most people earn in their entire lifetimes in aggregate. She can afford to keep buying stuff when you or I plain can't anymore.

    A lot of people will just break under the financial burden that dwindling supplies driving prices up will impose, waaaay before the supply chains themselves get close to collapsing, because the prices are trending upwards (in part) in order to maintain the supply chain.

    The point is that the people rich enough to influence global climate trends aren't going to feel the pressure in their lifetimes (unless they're made to), because they have the money to handle the effects of it.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    I'm really worried it'll be sooner rather than later.

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